Omega City Chronicles

Summary: In an alternate Earth, superheroes learn that it's not all fun and games to live out the fantasies of our comic books. Being a superhero is actually a lot of hard work.

The Bulldozer

It was easy to forget that a
superhero had bills to pay. Rent for
secret bases, phone bills for communicators, body armor, weapons, training
equipment and then there were all the other random gadgets a team could make use
of throughout their careers, such as humanoid chassis for butler drones and quantum
field generators that threaten to tear the fabric of the space time continuum.

Or maybe the team just needs to
restock the beer fridge. That was part
of what got Randall Grey to agree to this job, after all. The construction project down the street had
suffered some vandalism and one of their bulldozers was immobilized when the
tires got melted.

Inspecting the damage, he could
tell it wasn’t the work of some recently empowered teen. The damage to the tires was too direct and
intentional. If it were a kid playing
with fire erupting from his hands, there would be scorch marks all over the
rest of the vehicle and the dirt under it would be green glass.

He leaned in close and checked the
burned holes in the rubber. Whoever had
done this had been careful to melt large gaps in the tires, but he found a few
tears where the sides had blown out from the air pressure, not from burning.

“Hrm,” the big man grumbled to
himself as he pushed himself back to his feet.

“Can you do it?” the site foreman
asked.

They’d met a couple weeks earlier
in a bar down the street. The crew had
just broken ground on a new apartment building project and they were already
behind schedule on a low-bid project.
Randall had given up asking how that was possible. He’d worked with construction firms before,
and this sort of thing tended to happen when the upper management was more
concerned about getting the contracts than making sure the jobs were done
well. It was happening more and more
lately, especially with the work in Omega City having been officially completed
almost a year ago.

New Harlem was still in
development, though. There was something
odd about cities built in the wake of the Xenog War. It was as if somebody had told the planners “This
is where the pretty things go, here is where the factories will be, and over
here, this will be the slums. Because
every city needs a slums district.” New
Harlem was the city’s slums.

The rest of the city was steel and
glass. New Harlem, though, was brick and
mortar. It was gritty and dark. Ostensibly, it was meant to match the
aesthetics of New York, make the displaced survivors of that ruined city feel
more at home. To Randall, though, it was
all nonsense and mockery. It was as if
somebody was trying to ensure there would always be a lowest caste from which
to extract cheap labor, and that they would feel like they needed to be that
way.

He wasn’t the only one that felt
that way, either. His forays into the
local bar scene showed that the population was getting nervous. They were of every race and creed, poured
into a custom-made melting pot. The
older generations were still sore from the alien invasion, but the younger ones
were rapidly picking up where they’d left off before the attacks, and now they
had less distance between each other and a whole new slew of weapons to use,
not all of which were guns and knives.

Grey pushed the thoughts from his
mind. That sort of issue was too big for
him, and he was a big guy already.
Instead, he turned his thoughts to the task at hand: Moving the bulldozer.

Until the flatbed trailer could be
brought in to take it away, the machine was just in the way. Randall was asked to move it out of the way,
not investigate the arson. He turned to
the detective on duty and the man nodded to the foreman’s question.

“Alright, then,” the big man grumbled
and moved to the front of the bulldozer.

“You sure you don’t need help?” the
foreman asked, “I mean, you’re big, but this thing is huge. We could pull the cement truck around and tow
while you push.”

“You guys are strapped for budget
as it is,” Randall replied as he gripped the machine’s blade, “I may as well
see if I can earn this check first.”

They weren’t kidding about him
being big. The hero stood eight feet
tall and was half as wide. Not all of
the bulk was fat, either. While Randall
did sport a massive beer gut, his arms and legs were as thick as tree trunks
and corded with muscle.

He pushed against the massive
machine and it didn’t budge, no matter how much he strained. His muscles bulged and sweat started to bead
on his brow. Still, he pushed.

After five minutes, he stopped and
started chuckling. The foreman and some
of the onlooking workers looked to each other and shrugged.

“I know what I forgot, Steve,” Grey
said as he waved off the man heading for the cement truck, “Forgot to put her
in neutral.”

This got the rest of the construction
crew to laugh, too, and once he’d disengaged the gear, Randall was able to move
the vehicle smoothly, though it still took some effort. The veins on his limbs glowed faintly, the
only hint outside of his incredible size that supernatural forces were at play.

“Thank you,” the foreman chuckled
once the vehicle looked settled in the corner of the lot and the big man had
cooled down, “And I keep telling you, it’s Esteban.”

“I know, I just like messin’ with
ya.”

They shook hands, or wrapped one
small tan hand in a massive paw, and Randall made his way to the man in the
business suit. He was a representative
of Megadynamic Industries, one of the major corporations that helped build the
city and the shell company that owned the construction company.

“That’ll be a hundred bucks,” he
grumbled down to the suit.

“Sounds a bit steep for the time we
lost waiting for you,” the suit grumbled and made no move to open the briefcase
he held or reach for a wallet.

“I didn’t start your
situation. Somebody who doesn’t like
that you’re working here did, but you’ll need to confirm that with the
detective. I’m a ‘Hit Things’ hero, son,
and sometimes I get to do a little something else, like push a big heavy
bulldozer out of the way of honest, hardworking folks who just want to get back
to work. If you’ve got a problem with
the job I’ve done, I can just put it right back and you can either hire another
musclehead who definitely won’t be as cheap as I am or wait for your flatbed.”

“Fine…” the man sighed as he opened
the briefcase and scribbled out a company check for the big man, “Some hero. Charging for a civic duty.”

“Hey, not all of us are billionaire
playboys whose parents are dead,” Randall grumbled as he took the slip of paper,
“And we all still need to eat.”

“Indeed,” the suit muttered.

Write a Review
Did you enjoy my story? Please let me know what you think by leaving a review! Thanks,
RolandGrey

CookieMonster911:
The story overall was an adventure that is appealing to any age. The way the characters develop adds a more human characteristic to the novel. The writing style itself is amazing because you can learn every character's thoughts and emotions. The awkward love triangle and jerk moments adds to the ...

ernbelle:
When I first started this story I was a little unsettled by all of the information that appears in the prologue, and wasn't sure if I would continue. However, I am very glad I did. The plot was very well thought out and really interesting. There were not any page breaks or markers to acknowledge ...

Alice Liu:
Whoa! I've been wondering how would the Maurauders react to Harry's life and here we go! YOU ARE THE BEST! All the characters are consistent with their personalities shown in the book! I love how you compare Lily with Molly and it's definitely true for her being a mother! I wish Peter comes have ...

Usagi Kita:
This story is emotional from beginning to end. You get to watch the characters struggle and grow, maturing in different ways so that they come to be the people they are meant to be. Inea is insanely adorable, and his antics made me laugh more than once, and Kaedon is perfect for him in so many wa...

Chris Rolfe:
BOY!!! I sure love what Aer-Ki Jyr did with this series. IMHO he captured the essence of what stargate is all about. Thru out the Stargate stories Aer-Ki wrote Stevens and John Shepard some of the main characters in his stories are pursued by a corrupt I.O.A.. All the while Stevens is changing in...

ga1984:
I really enjoyed it! Characters were deep and plot was pretty complex. A bit on the violent side but it doesnt detract from the story. Very dark but situations make sense. Ends kinda abruptly and later chapters will need some editing work. I'm assuming there's more in the works?

JWalker:
I loved this story from start to finish! It flows at a really nice pace and the story world feels so real. The fight sequences are a treat especially when Isanfyre is training to become a warrior. I found the names really cool and thankfully easy to pronounce. Personally I have always struggled w...

Deleted User:
This is a very clever story in the style of 19th century (and turn of the century) Gothic writing, very reminiscent of Stevenson's The Body Snatchers or even of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (less so of Frankenstein itself, since the author is more minimalist than Shelley's florid, Romantic rhetoric). ...

summerstone:
Seriously this is one of the best books I've ever read. The plot is intriguing, I love the narrative style. Its very descriptive and unique, with minimal cliches. It makes for a great read and the sequels are amazing. Totally worth reading. ^^ That's me trying to be professional. But in all hones...

Steve Lang:
I thought this story was imaginative, and well thought out. I also think it was an original piece, and not a rehash of previous scifi stories I've read in the past.Thank you for the effort put into this tale, and I look forward to reading more of your work!

Lauren Suzmeyan-Raine:
I'm so glad you found a place to post your stories. I was horrified when I saw yours had been taken down, they are definitely the best 'reading' stories I've ever read. And I've made it my business to read every one I can. Well done.Lauren

Schaelz:
I was intrigued from the second I started reading, and it kept my interest the whole way through. Chelsea has a way with words that will enchant you until the very end. She is very poetic with the way she mixes genres and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The main character is also very relat...